Untitled Comment Fics
by Nine Days a Queen
Summary: Five untitled comment fics from a Sounis prompt fic party started by agh 4. - "Remind you of someone?"


**Title: Five Untitled Comment Fics**

**Author: ninedaysaqueen **

**Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of_ The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings,_ nor of any characters, locations, and elephants contained within. All rights of the _Queen's Thief _series belong exclusively to Megan Whalen Turner and her respective publishers.**

**Spoilers: Books 1-4**

**Summary: Five untitled comment fics from a Sounis prompt fic party started by agh_4.**

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><p><strong>Prompt #1-<strong>

_If I can save one heart from breaking,_

_I shall not live in vain._

_If I can save one life's the aching,_

_Or heal one pain._

_Or help a fainting robin,_

_Unto his nest again,_

_I shall not live in vain._

_-Emily Dickinson_

__**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**__

"Remind you of someone?" Irene said gently, kissing his temple.

"Urg..." Eugenides drawled, shutting the book and leaning back against the soft pillows. "Someone other then me I hope."

She laughed.

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><p><strong>Prompt #2-<strong>

_Gingerbread._

__**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**__

Eugenides had once read a story about a witch who lived in a gingerbread house. Coated in frosting and slathering in sweet sugar. She lived all alone in a pretty little house in a pretty, perfect wood, even though she was a very ugly woman. A house of deception, it was. Perhaps, all fancy houses were shrines to deception. Masks of glamour and glitter to hide the ugliness that dwelled within.

He tightened his grip on a crossbeam.

Looking down on the queen of Attolia to where she ran her country and sat on her throne with the poised dignity of the gods, he considered the story he'd read so long ago.

She wore a mask too, but he was certain it wasn't ugliness it hid.

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><p><strong>Prompt #3-<strong>

"_It's amazing what a good book can do." _

_-Forgotten Truth by Dawn Cook_

__**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**__

"Books are amazing, aren't they?" said Sophos replacing one of Eugenides's many volumes back on the shelf by his bedside.

"I suppose..." Eugenides answered dryly, his eyes still shut.

Not noticing the prone boy's bored tone, Sophos continued wistfully, "The magus says it's amazing what a good book can do-make an ignorant man wise, spin a tale of impossibilities-

"Start a fire in a pinch?" Eugenides interrupted with a smirk.

"Gen..." Sophos crossed his arms petulantly. Eugenides snorted, but his face fell when he saw his friend's expression.

"Sophos?" the older boy asked mildly.

Sophos raised his eyebrows.

"Why don't you read me one of the books?"

Sophos smiled.

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><p><strong>Prompt #4-<strong>

"_I can. I will. I just did."_

_-Hidden Truth by Dawn Cook_

__**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**__

"You can't do this, Eugenides."

I'd been reading in the library. Tossing my book to a nearby table, I looked up to where my brother stood in the doorway.

"I can. I will. I just did," I answered shortly. Ripping my enrollment papers to shreds before an audience of hundreds hadn't been the most subtle display of my distaste for a military career, but... I was never one to do anything halfway.

"Your mad... or stupid or both!" my brother shouted at me. "What can you make of yourself with an archaic title and a pointless tradition? What happens then?"

I scoffed none too politely. "At least, I won't have sailed my ship of success on a river of blood. At least, when I'm old and feeble and bedridden!" My voice rose with each word, edged by jaded knowledge and bitter youth. "At least, my pedestal will merely stand on corruption and lies! At least, I won't have exalted myself on a pile of bones! My sword bathed in the blood of thousands!"

My brother's voice dripped disdain. "Your self-righteousness knows no bounds, does it?" His lips curled in disgust. "Then maybe this is where you belong. With the dust and the moths and the decay you seem to revel in. Maybe when you tire of your ideals, you'll come to your knees before the family in shame."

"I bow to no man. That is my right." It was. Even if no one else knew it yet.

"You'll bow one day, Eugenides. And when it happens, I hope I'm there to see it, because you will have very, very far to fall." He slammed the door as he left.

Far to fall? I sighed. Propping up my feet, I rested my forehead against interlocked fingers.

He had no idea.

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><p><strong>Prompt #5-<strong>

"_Who in the World halts when the enemy tells them to?"_

_-Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith_

__**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**__

"Your Majesty?" One of the the king's attendants quietly entered the royal chambers, bearing a diplomatic pouch held tightly in his grasp. "Message from Sounis for you and Her Majesty."

Eugenides waved a hand towards the table under his feet as if shooing away a moth. The attendant left the pouch by the king's ankles.

"My dear," Eugenides called to the bed, "You may want to wake up." The fire was burned low with the light of early morning, and Eugenides hadn't slept a wink.

Irene pushed the covers back slowly, hissing as the cold air hit her bare feet. She wrapped a robe around her shoulders and toed on her slippers before approaching her husband's perch. "It's here?" she asked cautiously.

The king nodded. "I can't open it." He shook his head, laughing bitterly. "I'm soon to be overlord of three kingdoms, and I can't open the damn message pouch."

His queen stared at him for a long moment before picking up the pouch and opening the flap. Eugenides tightly shut his eyes as she broke the wax seal and unrolled the parchment, scanning the carefully penned text.

Lifting his gaze, Eugenides watched the corners of her lips turn up into a smile. "He's alive. Sounis is victorious."

Eugenides let go of the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Quickly standing up, he exclaimed, "By the gods, he didn't halt when the enemy told him to!"

Attolia laughed in the joy of relief. "Who in the world does that?"

Eugenides rolled his eyes knowingly.

"Ah, the gentleman opponent... The Medes will have something to fear in him," said the queen, handing her husband the parchment so he could read the message himself.

"Why's that?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Our opponents expect me to be cruel, you to be crafty, and Eddis to be kind, but what can they expect from Sophos?"

Eugenides nodded in understanding. "Nothing... and everything. Perfectly unexpected."

Attolia smiled regally. "Exactly."

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading,<strong>

**ninedaysaqueen**


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